Signal Mountain Leading City Swim Meet After First Day

Dalton, Ooltewah Hot On Their Heels Following Record-Breaking Session

Friday, July 12, 2013
- by John Hunt

Nobody should be surprised that the Signal Mountain Green Giants are the leaders after the first day of the Chattanooga Area Swim League's City Meet, which began early Friday morning at the spacious Baylor natatorium.

The Green Giants captured that lead with 1,163 points while second-place Dalton is close with 1,068.

Ooltewah is third with 895 while Stuart Heights and Fairyland Club round out the top five with 696 and 635.5 points, respectively.

Signal Mountain really stepped up as six of the eight meet records broken on Friday were reset by the Green Giants.

Susanna LaRochelle, a 14-year-old standout, broke a pair of records while Sam McHugh did the same among the senior boys.

LaRochelle began her day with a new record in the 50 breaststroke with a time of 30.75 seconds, which broke Tess Antesbarger's mark of 31.48, which had been set in 2005. She then broke the record in the 100 individual medley with a time of 59.55 seconds, breaking Kristen Myers' old standard of 1:01.16.

McHugh tied the mark of 46.56 seconds in the 100 free and finished the day with a new record in the 100 IM, his time of 51.81 seconds rewriting Taylor Dale's record of 51.94, which had been set last year. Ironically, Dalton's Dale was the runner-up in that last race with a time of 52.60 seconds.

Maggie Stovall and Mathias Porter were the other Signal Mountain record breakers with Stovall's time of 52.34 seconds in the 100 free breaking Lindsey Martin's record of 52.92, which had been set in 2006. Porter set the standard of 26.73 in the preliminary rounds of the 50 breast, but he still won that race in the finals with a time of 26.85 seconds.

The only other new records were set by Stuart Heights' Mikaya Reynolds, who broke Martin's record of 1:01.40 in the 100 IM with a time of 1:01.20. Dalton's foursome of Ethan Young, Dale, Austin Richard and Taylor Mathis set the standard in the 200 medley relay for senior boys with a time of 1:38.92, breaking the old mark of 1:39.06, which had been set by Dalton in 2006.

Needless to say, Signal Mountain coach Nathan Bird may have been the happiest man on campus following Friday's final session.

"Fantastic," he said when asked how he felt about his team's performance.

"All of these kids have posted their best times and they've come back and gotten even faster in the finals. I couldn't be any happier as that's all I can ask. I know that Dalton has a lot of people scoring a bunch of points and it's hard to say what the score is, but I'm sure that we're close to the top.

"What we have in speed, Dalton has in depth, but we just need to keep doing tomorrow what we've done today," Bird concluded.

Dalton coach Charles Todd remarked that his team had 42 entries in Friday's final session while Ooltewah had 37 and Signal Mountain 35. He's confident that his team will be better on Saturday since those finals involve strokes where the Dolphins are stronger.

"I think we're up as we're looking strong, but Signal Mountain really swam well today. I feel like it's our meet to lose as we're always stronger on the second day, but there's still a long way to go," Todd added.

Ooltewah coach Ed Dailey knows that every individual on every team posts their best times as this is the biggest meet of the year for this summer league.

"We had some very good swims, but we're taking care of business and doing what we're expected to do. But everyone brings it to this meet. I really like what we've done today as every one of my kids are proud to be representing the Tidal Waves and they're showing it by how they swim," Dailey expressed.

LaRochelle was joined by 10-year-old teammate Stephanie Xian as a three-time winner on Friday while Ooltewah's Jake Kiemeyer did the same as all won the 100 free, 50 breast and 100 IM.

Saturday's action begins at 8:30 a.m. with preliminary rounds in the freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events. The evening session with some of the most exciting racing of the season will begin at 5:30.

Dalton is the defending City Meet champion.

Listed below are the team scores and event winners following Friday's finals.

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